"Mother, Mother..."
"No, not my child."
"Kill me! I'm willing to use my life in exchange..."
Li Tianwei frowned slightly as he watched the scenes continuously emerge before him.
Under the gathering of Corrupting Grudge Qi, the events once experienced by the owners of these hundred thousand grudges appeared one after another before Li Tianwei's eyes.
There were scenes of someone watching their own mother being flayed, subjected to Bone Marrow Extraction, tortured, hung upside down, and dried. There were mothers who had carried their children for ten months and were about to give birth, yet personally cut open their own bellies to take the child out...
All manner of scenes condensed from boundless evil. Most importantly, they were viewed from the murderer's perspective.
And you became the very person these people hated, as though every last one of those sins had been wrought by your own hands.
"I want you dead. I hate you..."
"Why did you kill my wife and child? We revered you as immortals—why did you treat us like this?"
"I only wanted to farm. Why did you seize my land?"
"It's raining. The great drought is over, but we already sold our land to those people. The rain has come, and from now on, we'll be farm slaves..."
Soft murmurs accompanied scene after scene that seemed to come straight from hell.
Li Tianwei truly found it difficult to imagine that such a thing existed within the spiritual qi of heaven and earth.
But upon thinking it over carefully, Li Tianwei felt it was entirely possible. This was a fantasy world! The thoughts of Sentient Beings, the faith of Sentient Beings—using them to influence heaven and earth was extremely plausible.
Thus, based on his current realization, Li Tianwei thought of a possibility: the people of this world were trapped in dire straits, and that was why such abnormalities existed within the spiritual qi of heaven and earth.
Comprehending Dao Intents was originally about grasping a fleeting spark of spiritual insight.
Now that he had witnessed such utterly inhumane scenes, even Li Tianwei's heart could not help but tremble.
"I hate it! Why did I revere cultivators like you, only to suffer such an end?!"
Just as Li Tianwei thought this, a savage face suddenly lunged at him from among the countless phantoms.
When Li Tianwei saw it pounce, his heart inexplicably turned cold, and his entire body prickled.
At the same time, blotches appeared across Li Tianwei's pure Spiritual Platform beneath that dense aura, as though it had been covered in mold.
Li Tianwei sensed that something was wrong with this sudden change, but those afterimages did not care what he thought.
"Die, die..."
"I want you dead..."
The afterimages screamed as they continually pounced on Li Tianwei.
Very quickly, a layer of filth covered Li Tianwei's Spiritual Platform.
Outside, Li Tianwei, who was sitting cross-legged in cultivation, had turned completely dark-faced, and all sorts of ominous auras radiated from his body.
The Evil Qi, heavy enough to taint everything, rushed forth. Seeing this, the Book Spirit knew that Li Tianwei had been utterly contaminated by the Corrupting Grudge Qi. He was beyond saving.
In the era when it had followed the Heavenly Origin Immortal Venerable, under such Corrupting Grudge Qi, Li Tianwei would have only one outcome: to be completely transformed into an Evil Demon.
The Book Spirit even wondered whether its words truly possessed Words Manifestation. It had called Li Tianwei an Evil Demon before, and now he had really become one.
As for Li Tianwei, who had been struck by the Remnant Souls within the Corrupting Grudge Qi, his Spiritual Platform was now completely covered in filth.
The corruption even began spreading toward his spirit root. His Pseudo-Spirit Root, already dim and devoid of light in all five colors, became shrouded in a layer of gray mist.
If a powerful expert had been present and able to examine Li Tianwei's condition, they would likely have reached only one conclusion: he was beyond saving.
His Spiritual Platform was stained, his spirit root was obscured. Forget cultivation—even a heart demon's invasion would have long since turned him into a madman.
Amid this extreme situation, where everything about him was collapsing, Li Tianwei had indeed fallen into a predicament he had never experienced before.
In that instant, he became each and every Remnant Soul, endlessly living through all they had endured.
The scenes of skin being stripped and bones being carved, the moment households were destroyed and families perished, the helplessness of facing slaughter at the hands of cultivators.
All kinds of scenes enough to make one completely collapse, despair, and melt away...
To personally experience this at such a moment was something even cultivators with Dao Hearts as firm as rocks would find difficult to endure.
Because this was no longer tempering one's state of mind. It was utter, thorough torture.
That was right—torture. Personally experiencing the torment of a hundred thousand people's grievances.
From this, one could see just how ruthless the methods of those people from Baiyuan Sacred Land who had forged the Wuhun Banner were. They had never intended to give cultivators affected by the Wuhun Banner even the slightest chance to resist.
And at this moment, under the unceasing torture, cold sweat began to bead constantly across Li Tianwei's physical body's forehead. He even trembled from time to time.
Even the spiritual qi around him began to riot, and the violent disturbance gradually spread outward.
Returning to Li Tianwei, from the instant those savage Remnant Souls had lunged at him, a single glance became ten thousand years...
Li Tianwei had truly fallen into that bizarre scene, where endless torment descended upon him.
At this moment, let alone ordinary people, even demonic cultivators who had undergone countless brutal trials might not have been able to withstand it all.
Yet Li Tianwei was an exceedingly strange person with an exceptionally broad mind.
He could firmly believe himself a genius, be so utterly self-centered that he could regard even a Pseudo-Spirit Root as a Heavenly Spirit Root, and believe what was wrong to be right.
He was someone defined by self-certainty, arrogance, self-centeredness, and extreme seriousness.
Faced with this sudden strangeness, he instead did not think it was his problem, nor would he believe it was his problem.
Because in his heart, he was currently having an enlightenment into Dao Intents—comprehending Dao Intents.
For Li Tianwei, this feeling of being deeply immersed within it had already found its explanation.
"I'm having an enlightenment."
That was right. In Li Tianwei's heart, everything he was currently suffering was because he had attained enlightenment.
After all, he had read so many novels and understood the special nature of protagonists.
This immersive experience, undergoing countless hardships as though everything were lashing directly at him—when it fell upon his heart, was it not an enlightenment?
If it were not enlightenment, how could it feel so real?
Thus, faced with such circumstances, Li Tianwei was not afraid or terrified. Instead, he was excited and even impatient.
If it had been an ordinary cultivator, encountering such illusions and scenes would have long driven them to collapse in despair.
Yet Li Tianwei instead regarded it as enlightenment. After realizing this—
He became utterly fearless. Enlightenment required one to feel with the heart.
As a Heavenly Spirit Root, was it not perfectly normal for him to have an enlightenment?
Therefore, Li Tianwei fearlessly charged straight at them. Not only did he experience the desperate lives and painful everything of those people within the grudges, he even savored them carefully, afraid of missing the slightest detail.
"So real, so real. Is this enlightenment?"
Feeling his body being torn apart once again, sensing the intense emotions carried by a shattered household, Li Tianwei could not help but sigh.
Naturally, he could not let such an experience pass him by. He immediately began comprehending within it.
Since enlightenment had come, he had to comprehend Dao Intents from within it.
Thus, amid this relentless bombardment, the sliver of conviction that he was enlightened remained in Li Tianwei's heart. Under his utterly self-centered certainty—
No matter how the Corrupting Grudge Qi bombarded him, no matter how densely mottled filth filled his Spiritual Platform, he remained clear-headed.
What was it like to live through the painful lives of a hundred thousand people, much less personally experience them?
Yet Li Tianwei did not merely experience them—he savored them carefully. With such layers piled together, even a fool could comprehend something from that sliver of clear awareness.
No one would dare attempt such an extremely risky method, one that offered no possibility of remaining lucid enough to comprehend anything within it.
A hundred thousand experiences...
Yet Li Tianwei used his self-proclaimed enlightenment, using self-hypnosis, to delve deep into it.
Greed, anger, obsession, hatred, love...
All kinds of desires and human thoughts lingered in Li Tianwei's mind.
The most abundant among them were hatred, malice, resentment, venom, and suffering...
Li Tianwei had originally wanted to use the five elements of heaven and earth and the five elements of his spirit root to comprehend the Dao Intents of the five elements. Instead, through one bout of enlightenment, he sensed something unheard of before.
The thoughts of Sentient Beings within heaven and earth.
"As expected, I'm a genius..."
Li Tianwei did not find this the least bit surprising. He simply considered it only natural—after all, his talent was just that outstanding.
Thus, beneath the Corrupting Grudge Qi, through this feeling and what he himself believed to be "enlightenment," Li Tianwei comprehended that so-called Dao Intent.
In his eyes, the Three Thousand Dao Intents were simple and easy to grasp.